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Gilmore Girls: Season 6 (US - DVD R1)

Gabe sighs, pushes play on his DVD player, and tries to sit still for 16 hours...

Feature

Lorelai Gilmore, 32, has such a close relationship with her daughter Rory that they are often mistaken for sisters. Between Lorelai's relationship with her parents, Rory's new prep school, and both of their romantic entanglements, there's plenty of drama to go around. This season Lorelai gets engaged, and Rory quits school to live with her wealthy grandparents.

Those who may've read my Smallville: Season 5 review may recall a little whining I did about receiving entire seasons of television shows I did not ask for in the mail to review. About two days after Smallville showed up, Gilmore Girls: Season 6 followed. I admitted to unfairly prejudging the cult Superman series, and actually found watching the series in its entirety sometimes enjoyable, and rarely a chore. After this shameful revelation I decided to give Gilmore Girls the same chance.

This was the wrong choice.

I understand why people love this particular slice of ‘dramedy’, but cannot for a second claim I enjoyed myself. The show's theme seems to be that of people miscommunication in all facets of life. They miscommunicate their intentions, their emotions, and their words are constantly misunderstood or not heard all together. In an early episode, in a somewhat feeble attempt to compare what I'm sure the series' writers assume is witty dialogue to classic Hollywood fare, Lorlai refers to her conversation with her fiancé as a bad Abbot and Costello bit. If only she knew how much I agreed with her.

The constant witty banter is kind of obnoxious, but not enough to shake me from my unmitigated boredom. Had I been fully annoyed with the characters I may've at least been paying attention in hopes that a rock would fall from the heavens and smite them, but alas, I just didn't care. This lack of interest may have something to do with my Y-chromosomes, as I'm made to understand that this is a ‘chick-series’.

I'd like to think I'm mature enough to transcend my gender on occasion, and I love a good romance, but watching Gilmore Girls was kind of like watching afternoon tea featuring Grandma Boringpants and her closest friends. There was some dialogue, some drama, some comedy, but I was so desperate for entertainment I was looking for it rather than just experiencing it. In the end, I was busy enough with other, more pressing reviews, not to mention real life, to decide not to bore myself any further. I stopped watching and started writing this review.

I know it's not very professional of me, but sitting through almost sixteen hours of something that was boring me so seemed fair. If I missed some spectacular revelation, I apologize to the series fans for this uneducated review. Honestly though, nothing short of the town catching fire, Rory becoming a serial killing hooker, or Lorelai growing an extra head was going to keep me interested. The series is very well made, it looks nice and theatrical, and I thank God for the lack of a laugh track. The actors are all solid, though Alexis ‘The Forehead’ Bledel seems to only know how to look concerned and slightly annoyed (her small roll in Sin City doesn't really show much more range).

Critically, the problem here is that all these characters are such archetypes that I can't get excited about any of them. Lorelai's fiancé is taken right out of the women's dream guy journal, rugged (look, he wears a backwards baseball cap), widowed (or ditched, I don't know the back story), good with kids. She works with a saucy gay man who makes Will and Grace look progressive (which it is not). Rory's college friends are a mother's fantasy, they actually care about school, but in order to keep the 15-25 demographic, they aren't afraid to party. The town’s full of overweight, Chatty Cathys that keep up on all the ‘good dirt’. Worst of all is Lorelai's rich parents, who are so wrapped up in their societal standing that they don't realize how detached and blatantly racist they are. Wow, rich snobs that harp on their only daughter... where have I seen that before?

If you're one of the many that enjoy this series, more power to you. I'm not going to call it awful, because it isn't. It is, however, uninspired, and I did find it excruciatingly boring. Its popularity doesn't blow my mind, and I understand that not all entertainment, especially not that which is made to pander to the largest demographic, needs to be high art, or even original. I'm sure this review wasn't going to do anything for the show anyway, no matter what my opinion may have been, beneficial or detrimental.

Video

Gilmore Girls looks like what it is, a recently minted, medium budgeted TV show with little theatrical ambition. This full-frame transfer leaves me with little to review because it's neither spectacular enough to garner praise, nor dilapidated enough to garner contempt. This is the middle of the road, all the way. The frame is usually colourful, and the colours seem well represented. There is a presence of grain in low-lit sequences, but nothing too obtrusive. On an HD display the picture reveals some pixelisation, and general digital noise, but on a standard tube set these flaws are invisible.

Audio

Nothing special here either. The Dolby Surround track is fine for such a show, so centred around the 'clever' dialogue. The music is wretch worthy, but this is to be expected from a WB original series. There was no audio distortion throughout, but there also isn't much in the way of dynamic range to the track.

Extras

Overall

So I didn't like it, but I wasn't exactly the target audience, now was I? The show is well made enough, and seems to successfully fill the void left in plenty of people's lives, so who am I to judge? The DVD set has no extras, and a very average A/V presentation, but the folks that love the show shouldn't be too concerned. Hopefully I won't be receiving anymore surprise TV series sets in the mail anytime soon, and show fans won't have to listen to me not enjoy their favourites any more.